


how long do you wanna be loved? is forever enough?

by drunkkenobi



Series: Ellie [2]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Watcher Entertainment
Genre: Arguments, Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, Happy Ending, Kid Fic, M/M, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:13:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24211906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunkkenobi/pseuds/drunkkenobi
Summary: "That was not okay, Eliana. Now you won’t get any cookies at all today,” Shane told her sternly before dropping the cookies into the trash can. Defiance in her eyes, she picked up another one.As if there were any doubt she was Ryan Bergara’s daughter.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Series: Ellie [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830517
Comments: 62
Kudos: 315
Collections: I Love You May





	how long do you wanna be loved? is forever enough?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the I Love You May event. Instead of a first "I love you", I wanted to write about established love and the ups and downs that can entail, so that’s why I went in this direction. I also really wanted to write kidfic, so. 
> 
> Thank you, as always, to Bee for the beta and to the discord for coming up with this event in the first place. Title from Dixie Chicks "Lullaby".

“Don’t go to bed angry.”

It’s the most repeated advice given to couples by movies and television shows and friends and self-help books. Even Shane’s own father said it to him on his wedding day, pulling him aside with a firm grip on Shane’s shoulder, his face red with champagne and emotion.

“Well, son,” Mark Madej had started. The tremble in his voice had been light, but it was still enough to make Shane’s knees wobbly. In his defense, the whole day had been like that. 

“Well, Pa,” Shane easily replied, an old family joke that lost its irony years ago.

“You’ve done it. You’ve gone and done it.”

“I have. You were there, as I recall. It was just this afternoon.”

His dad ignored that, too set on whatever he was about to say. “You can’t undo it. I mean, I suppose you can, but you won’t. If your mother can still tolerate me after forty years, I know you can make it. But—,”

“Always a but.”

“ _But_ , and you gotta hear me on this, you can’t go to bed angry, Shane. Promise me, hell, promise _yourself_ you won’t.”

“Okay, Dad, I won’t,” Shane smiled, clapping his dad on the back. “I promise.”

For five years, Shane would’ve sworn up and down that he had kept that promise. But as he sat alone in his house, the hurt glances of Ryan and their daughter haunting him, he realized just how badly he had broken it. 

* * *

Like most things that blow up into disaster, it started small. All a wildfire needs is a spark.

“Can I have a cookie?” Ellie asked, her little fingers already reaching up towards the counter where the package of Oreos sat.

“No, honey, you’ll spoil your dinner,” Shane said automatically as he frowned at the rice in his pot. It was supposed to be creamy, why wasn’t it creamy?

“Pleeeeeeeease?” she begged.

“No. You have to wait for dessert, remember?”

She made the huffy sort of noise that only a three-year-old could, and Shane got back to focusing on his risotto. He was stirring, exactly like the recipe said, but his rice was more like a soup. Had he put too much broth in it? What the fuck was happening here? He consulted his tablet for the recipe, and while he was double-checking that he hadn’t missed a step, the distinct crinkle of an Oreo package caught his ear.

“Eliana! What did I just say?” Shane said sternly, whipping around to catch her red-handed.

“I’m hungry _now_!” she pouted.

“Then you can have some crackers. Dinner will be so soon, I promise.”

She crossed her arms, her wide brown eyes narrowing in anger. “I want cookies!”

“We’ve talked about this. Those are an after-dinner food, if you wait just a few minutes I swear— _Ellie!_ ”

Shane was interrupted from his usual spiel by the bag of Oreos being pulled off the counter and onto the floor. Most of the cookies spilled out of the tray onto the tile, while Ellie happily grabbed one in each of her tiny hands. Shane immediately snatched the Oreos back out of her grasp.

“That was not okay, Eliana. Now you won’t get any cookies at all today,” he told her sternly before dropping the cookies into the trash can. Defiance in her eyes, she picked up another one. 

As if there were any doubt she was Ryan Bergara’s daughter.

“Guess who just lost out on movie night?” Shane asked, taking the newest Oreo. 

“Nooooo!” she wailed, her cheeks quickly turning a splotchy red.

“Yes. Now, help me clean this up.”

“No! I hate you!” Ellie shouted before running towards her room and screaming for Ryan.

Stunned, Shane stood still, the rogue cookie falling from his hand to join its brethren on the floor. They weren’t supposed to use the “H” word in this house, and for Ellie to say it to him cracked Shane’s heart wide open. He knew that she was upset about movie night, but it didn’t help him feel better to watch his daughter defy and then run away from him like that. 

Blurs of orange and brown snapped Shane out of his stupor.

“Obi! Oscar! Absolutely not,” he said firmly.

Obi paused, staring at Shane with curious eyes, but Oscar kept sniffing the ground, determined to find whatever treat had fallen on the floor. How dogs survived this long was a mystery to Shane.

“Out!” Shane told them again. “It’s chocolate, you can’t have it. Go!”

Obi finally skittered away, but his weiner dog little brother did not. With a frustrated grunt, Shane picked Oscar up and carried him to the living room. As soon as he sat him down, however, Oscar ran back towards the kitchen.

“Fine. Die, see if I care,” Shane grumbled, nevertheless chasing after him. But Oscar was scooped up before Shane got to him.

“What happened in here?” Ryan asked as Oscar squirmed in his arms. 

“A lot,” Shane said grimly as he grabbed the broom and dustpan. “Ellie dropped the bag of Oreos onto the floor and when I asked her to clean them up, she ran away and then your son tried to kill himself by attempting to eat said Oreos. Oh, and dinner is ruined. So.”

“Wow. Maybe we should’ve traded tonight. That conference call with Steven and the investors was boring as shit. The real action was happening out here.”

Shane didn’t respond as he swept up the Oreo mess, too frustrated to make light of the situation. Usually, Shane loved the nights when it was his turn to hang out with Ellie while Ryan worked from home. He looked forward to them, scouring the internet for dinner recipes and planning a few hours of just the two of them until Ryan could join them. On the nights when it was the opposite, he’d rush through his own work as quickly as possible so he could help Ryan with dinner and squeeze in a few extra minutes with her. They traveled a lot with Watcher, filming in cities all over the country, so every moment with Ellie was precious. For tonight to go so horribly awry...it hurt more than Shane was willing to admit.

“Oscar, go play with your ball,” Ryan gently commanded, setting the dog down. He obeyed, of course. Ryan then knelt down by Shane, reaching for the broom. “I’ll get this, you check on dinner. I’m sure it’s fine.”

Shane handed them off, but he didn’t see the point. He knew the risotto was ruined. One quick stir with his spoon confirmed it. There were grains stuck to the bottom of the pot while the rest were a liquidy, soupy mess. There was no saving it. 

“Not fine,” Shane said. “That’s what I get for trying to do something new.”

“We’ll order pizza or something, it’s not a big deal,” Ryan said as he poured the cookie mess into the trash can. “I can go pick it up when I take Oscar for his walk, easy-peasy.”

“Absolutely not, she doesn’t get to eat pizza after this,” Shane told him.

“Why not?”

“Because she misbehaved and she shouldn’t get to eat her favorite food because of it!”

“All she did was knock some cookies onto the floor, big guy.”

“After I told her repeatedly that she couldn’t have any until after dinner! And she tried to get them anyway and made a huge mess that almost killed our pets and kept me from being able to keep this stupid rice stirred. She does not get to have pizza or movie night, no way,” Shane argued.

Ryan raised his eyebrows. “No movie night either? No wonder she called you a ‘meanie poopyhead’.”

“Yeah, well, this meanie poopyhead was trying to cook her a nice, nutritious meal,” Shane said, crossing his arms as he leaned against the counter. 

Ryan laid his hand against Shane’s lower back, his thumb pressed against his spine. “How about we compromise? We’ll get pizza but no movie night. That way there’s still a punishment.”

It was on the tip of Shane’s tongue to agree, but tonight his usual compromising nature was gone. He was not going to let Ryan win this one. “No, Ryan. No pizza, no movie night. I’ll make some PB&Js or something. She has to learn her actions have consequences.”

“Jesus, c’mon Shane, a kid trying to sneak some cookies is not a big deal.”

“No, but her other dad rewarding her with pizza for it is,” Shane pointed out. “You get to be the good guy with her favorite food, while I’m the bad guy who took away her favorite night of the week.”

“I think you’re making this into a way bigger thing than it is,” Ryan said, crossing his own arms. “I doubt she’ll see it that way.”

“Yes, she will, Ryan!” Shane said, exasperated. “Because you’re always the hero, letting her basically get away with murder, while I’m over here trying to set rules and boundaries so she doesn’t became, you know, an actual murderer.”

“Whoa, hey. I set boundaries with her!”

“No, you don’t. One pout from her and you’re putty, letting her have another juice box or stay up an extra twenty minutes. And she knows it.”

Ryan’s eyes went dark. “Stop trying to turn your parenting fuck-up around on me.”

“ _My_ —?!” Shane was incredulous, throwing his arms into the air. “What, so I shouldn’t have taken away movie night even though she directly disobeyed me multiple times?”

“No. You should’ve just given her a fucking cookie in the first place,” Ryan said. “She would’ve eaten it and left you to make your stupid rice thing and all of this would’ve been avoided.”

“Of course that’s what you would’ve done,” Shane said with a roll of his eyes.

“Yeah, Shane, it is. You know what else I would’ve done? I would’ve cooked something simple because I have a three-year-old who needs to be watched and only eats seven things in the first place.” Ryan sighed, tipping his head back against an overhead cabinet. “You make shit so much harder than it needs to be.”

Ryan wasn’t wrong. He rarely was when it came to Shane. But Shane was too blinded by his own hurt to agree.

“Excuse me for trying to expand our daughter’s palate by cooking something that doesn’t come out of a box. Unlike you, I’m trying to be her parent, not her friend.”

Ryan looked like Shane had slapped him. “What the fuck are you talking about? I _am_ her parent.”

“Then set rules and boundaries with her instead of letting her do whatever the hell she wants!” Shane told him, as weeks and months of frustrations boiled over. “I know you think parenting is just fun and games, but some of us have to put in the real work here.”

Ryan pushed himself away from the counter and Shane. Shane braced himself for the comeback, his own rebuttal locked and loaded, but nothing came. Instead, Ryan stared at him, silent, his eyes like lava. 

Without a word, Ryan turned away, grabbing Oscar’s leash from the hook next to the front door. 

“Ryan, hey, wait,” Shane said quietly as a pit formed in his stomach.

Ryan ignored him as he shouted, “Ellie, you wanna help me take Oscar for a walk?”

A door opened and Ellie came bounding down the hall, her black hair flying everywhere. “Can I wear my duck hat?”

“Of course,” Ryan told her with a smile. As he put her hat and shoes on, neither of them paid any attention to Shane who was standing just a few feet away. 

“Can I come too?” Shane asked, his voice coming out weaker than even he expected.

“We need a minute, Shane,” Ryan said carefully. “ _I_ need a minute.”

“Alright,” Shane swallowed. “Be...be back soon, okay?”

Ryan and Ellie glanced back at him before opening the door and if looks could kill...well, Shane would be six feet under already. When the door closed, Shane exhaled a sharp “ _Fuck_.”

A horrible surge of guilt coursed through Shane’s veins, weighing him down enough that he sat down right in the middle of their entryway. How had he let himself say those things? Ryan was a great dad, the best, really. Too lenient, sometimes, sure, but was that worth blowing up over? Was that worth seeing the hurt on his husband’s face?

Shane rubbed his wedding band with his thumb. He finally understood what his dad had made him promise all those years ago. It wasn’t about literally going to bed angry. It was about not letting the small frustrations and annoyances build up over time until they explode. And Shane’s dad knew that Shane’s fear of confrontation was strong enough to keep his negative feelings locked down tight until they erupted. 

Why did he always do this? Why couldn’t he just tell Ryan months ago that he was being a little too easy on Ellie? They could have fixed this then, and now Ellie wouldn’t resent Shane so much for being the one that always disciplined her. She wouldn’t have screamed “I hate you!” all over a pre-dinner cookie. 

Shane sat on the floor for a while, waiting for them to come back. After twenty minutes, his back couldn’t take it anymore, so he retreated back to the kitchen to clean up his aborted dinner. He was scrubbing burnt rice off of the bottom of his favorite pot when the door opened.

“Papa, we got sammiches!” Ellie announced, her footsteps thundering into the kitchen.

“Hey, kiddo, take your shoes off!” Ryan shouted after her.

Shane turned around to see her waving a bag from the neighborhood deli around. She promptly dropped it on the floor and plopped down to take her shoes off and then toddled back to leave them by the front door. 

“Sandwiches, eh?” Shane asked, trying to catch Ryan’s eye, but he was too busy trying to untangle Oscar from his lead and balance a much bigger deli bag than Ellie’s.

“I gotta grilled cheese!” Ellie said as she carefully picked up her bag. “And apples!”

“That sounds delicious!” Shane told her as he grabbed her favorite Minnie Mouse plate. “Go ahead and sit at the table, I’ll cut it up for you.”

She climbed into her booster seat as Shane unwrapped her sandwich and cut into smaller strips. Heat pressed against his lower back that he immediately recognized as Ryan’s hand.

“Got you a turkey club and pasta salad,” Ryan said as he sat the bag on the counter.

“Thank you,” Shane told him before adding in a whisper. “I’m so sorry, Ryan, I shouldn’t—,”

“It’s okay,” Ryan whispered back.

“No, it’s not. Please, let me—”

Ryan interrupted again, this time with a squeeze to Shane’s hip. “Later, okay? Let’s eat first.”

They sat at their kitchen table, Ryan and Shane across from each other, while Ellie was in the middle. She hummed while she ate, something Ryan blamed Shane for, and babbled about a tiny dog they’d see on their walk that Oscar had taken an interest in. 

“Oscar coulda sat on him!” she laughed, lifting Shane’s heart into the stratosphere. He loved that laugh.

“Tell Papa what else we saw on our walk,” Ryan said, giving her an encouraging smile.

“What?” she asked.

“Tell him what you found.”

“Oh yeah!” Ellie shoved her hand deep inside her pocket and pulled out a small glass pebble, like the ones Shane’s mom used to fill up a decorative vase. This one was a bright teal.

“Oh, pretty!” Shane said with a smile. “We’ll have to find a cool spot for it in your room.”

Ellie shook her head as she stuck her little arm out towards Shane. “No, Papa, it’s yours.”

“Mine?” Shane looked from Ellie to Ryan for confirmation. Ryan nodded, smiling around a mouthful of his second sandwich. 

Carefully, Shane plucked the pebble out of Ellie’s hand. It didn’t weigh much, but it still felt heavy in his hand. 

“It’s beautiful, sweet pea. Thank you.”

“Ellie, what do we say when someone says ‘thank you’?” Ryan asked her.

“You’re welcome,” she mumbled. “Can I play now?”

“Eat one more apple slice and then you can go,” Ryan said.

Shane rubbed the glass rock between his fingers, watching her finish up and then skip back to her room, singing a nonsense song that may have been about cheese. Not for the first time, Shane wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve her.

“It amazes me how she is just a little clone of you,” Ryan said, watching Shane watch her.

“What? She looks nothing like me.”

“Not what I meant, big guy.” Ryan pulled a chair up next to him and sat down. “Watch this.”

Ryan handed Shane his phone, where a video was loaded. They both constantly took videos of Ellie, regardless of what she was doing or saying. (Shane had plans of making her some big lifelong video for her 18th birthday, but his rough cut at three-years-old was already four-and-a-half hours long, so that was probably a pipe dream.)

“Dad, look!” on-screen Ellie shouted, running up to Ryan and Oscar with the glass pebble.

“Cool! It’s like a glass rock.”

“It looks like Professor!” she grinned, waving it around excitedly. Shane’s heart seized up so suddenly he thought it was heartburn.

“Oh yeah, it is the same color as him! You’ll have to show Papa.”

Her face fell as she examined the rock. “He’s mad at me.”

The camera angle changed as Ryan knelt down to be eye level with her and he sat the phone down. All Shane could see now was sky, but the audio was crystal clear. “He’s not mad, baby girl, he just got a little frustrated, that’s all.”

“He hates me,” Ellie cried. “I said I hate him and now he hates me too.”

“Oh Ellie,” Ryan said soothingly. “He doesn’t hate you, he loves you. He loves you so much.”

Shane stopped the video as tears fell down his nose. His daughter thought he hated her and she got him a rock in return and his husband was rubbing his back and he didn’t deserve either of them.

“Why didn’t you tell me what she said?” Ryan asked softly.

“I was trying not to think about it,” Shane said as he dropped his glasses onto the table. “Does...does she really think…?” Shane couldn’t finish the thought. 

“No. Well, not for the reason _you_ think. She thought because she said it, it meant you’d say it back. Kid logic,” Ryan said with a shrug. “I promised her you don’t and she said she wanted to give you the rock as an ‘I’m sorry’ gift. But since she’s _your_ daughter, she just handed it to you like a tiny robot girl.”

Shane choked on a laugh as he wiped his face. “And yet I still think she’s more like you. That cookie move was pure Bergara.”

“I think we see each other in her because we’re afraid to see ourselves,” Ryan said in one of his moments of profound wisdom that always knocked Shane on his ass. “But in reality, she’s both of us and completely herself, all at once.”

“Damn. That was deep.”

Ryan smiled crookedly. “I have my moments.”

“You have lots of them,” Shane said, turning towards him. “You’re so much better at this than me, I’m so fucking sorry I said otherwise.”

“You weren’t wrong,” Ryan admitted, his shoulders slumping forward. “I am too easy on her, I know it. I’m just so terrified of saying no to her.”

“I know, it sucks to see her get upset, but you have to push through it.”

“It’s not that.” Shane raised his eyebrows, so Ryan clarified. “Well, it’s not _just_ that. I think I get so scared about it because I want her to like me. Which, wow, that sounds dumb when I say it out loud, huh?”

“No,” Shane told him. “Except for the fact that she would live in your pocket if she could. I don’t think you don’t have to worry about her not liking you.”

“I mean, like, in the future. When she’s older and savvier and can see through my bullshit. She’ll see _me_ , not as her dad but as Ryan Bergara, world-class idiot. I bet she won’t like him as much.”

“ _Ryan_ —,” Shane started, but Ryan kept going.

“So, I guess I feel like if I build up enough good will now, it’ll offset the inevitable by a couple years. Gimme some more time before she realizes what a disaster I am,” he finished with a sad smile.

Ryan had done a lot of work over the years to let go of his self-doubt, but it still reared its ugly head sometimes. Thankfully, no one was more qualified than to break Ryan out of it than Shane.

Shane slid his right hand into Ryan’s left, pressing their fingers tightly together. 

“She’s going to like you. I promise.”

“You can’t promise that, she’s her own person and she might—,”

“No, I can. Because _I_ know you better than anyone and I married you,” Shane said as he rubbed a finger against Ryan’s ring. 

“Yeah, but you’re an idiot,” Ryan teased, still unable to back down from that particular bit, even after all these years. “Ellie’s gonna be so much smarter than that.”

Shane brought Ryan’s hand into his own lap, tightening his grip. “Well, I don’t disagree, but you’re still wrong. Because if Ellie’s even an iota like me, she’s still going to laugh at all your jokes, she’s still going to love listening to your deep-dives on Disney and basketball and ghosts, and she’s still going to want to curl up with you on a Saturday night and watch movies and eat popcorn. You’ll be her favorite person, like you’re mine.”

Ryan wiped at his face before pressing a soft kiss to Shane’s cheek. “Thanks, big guy. I know it’s a ridiculous thing to be scared of, but you know, it’s me.”

“It’s okay,” Shane said before adding in a quieter voice. “I get scared too, you know.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Shane shifted in his seat, trying to get comfortable. It didn’t work. “I really am terrified she thinks I don’t love her as much as I actually do.”

“Shane, she knows. You tell her every day,” Ryan pointed out gently.

“I _say_ it, but I don’t think she knows, Ryan. I love her so fucking much, but it feels like she just thinks of me as that guy who makes her go to bed on time and doesn’t let her eat cookies before dinner,” Shane said, finally vocalizing the fear that had been plaguing him for months. “And because I’m such a robot, I’m afraid I won’t be able to show her how much I care or that she won’t be able to tell and she’ll grow up thinking I’m this distant asshole.”

“Oh fuck.” Ryan let go of Shane’s hand as he doubled over, face buried in his palms. “And I’m making it worse.”

“A little,” Shane conceded. “But I should’ve brought it up sooner. And I shouldn’t have said you weren’t acting like her parent. That wasn’t fair and I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You had every right—,” Ryan lifted his head, looking at Shane with shame written across his face. “Shane, I had no idea I was fucking up your relationship with her.”

“How would you know? I didn’t do anything about it besides hope very hard it would change,” Shane said as he laid a reassuring hand on Ryan’s back. “Shocker that didn’t work, huh?”

Ryan shook his head. “I should’ve known. I should’ve thought about you and I didn’t and I’m the worst husband ever.”

“Nope. Besides, it goes both ways, I should’ve seen why you’d be so anxious about punishing her. It was a mutual fuck-up.”

Ryan grabbed Shane’s hands, rubbing his thumb over the knuckles. “We’re gonna fix this, okay? I’m gonna stop being so lenient and you’re gonna tell me when I start to backslide. And I’m gonna help you turn those feelings on full-blast, no matter how much it pains you.”

“And how are we going to do that?”

Suddenly, Ryan let go, picking up his phone now. He typed for a few seconds before setting it down at the same moment Shane’s own phone vibrated in his pocket.

“Talking,” Ryan announced. “Every week, we’re going to talk. Not about Watcher, or movies, or anything else. Just about us and Ellie.”

“Did you really just schedule this in our Google calendar?” Shane asked as he glanced at the notification.

“Yup. And it’s set to run every week for forever, so we can’t miss it.”

He accepted the invite with a smile. “I love it. We’ll touch base, make sure we’re on the same page, all of that. It’s a great idea, baby.”

“They’ve been known to happen,” Ryan said with a smile back. “And if we don’t have anything to talk about, we can, I dunno, fool around or something.”

Shane laughed as he cupped a hand around Ryan’s cheek and pulled him in for a kiss. “I love you.”

“Love you too, big guy,” Ryan said against his lips.

* * *

“Hey baby Bergmeister,” Shane said as he opened the door to Ellie’s room. She was sitting in the middle of the floor with her crayons and a coloring book, scribbling in hot pink all across a cartoon tiger’s face. “Whatcha doin’?”

“Coloring,” she answered, still focused on her artwork.

“If you don’t mind taking a break, someone here wants to say something to you.”

She whirled around, her eyes growing twice their size when she saw The Professor on Shane’s hand. “Professor!”

Shane knelt down and spoke to The Professor. “You wanted to tell Miss Ellie something, didn’t you?”

“I sure did!” The Professor answered. His voice had never evolved much from Shane’s own, but he always put a little more mustard on it in front of Ellie. “Ah, Miss Ellie! My favorite little historian. What a beautiful piece of art you’ve got there!”

“It’s a tiger!” she said proudly, holding up the coloring book.

“Rawr!” Professor chomped, which sent Ellie into a fit of giggles. Shane couldn’t stop himself from grinning. 

“Wow, Professor, are you part tiger?” Shane asked him.

“No, just a lover of orange cats everywhere.”

“Like Obi!” Ellie said.

“Exactly. An excellent specimen that Obi is. But I’ve gotten off-track here. Miss Eliana, your papa showed me that pebble you found and, well, I’m quite at a loss for words!”

“Why?” she asked.

Shane pulled the rock out of Professor’s satchel and held it up in front of Professor’s eyes. “Because this is one of the most powerful little gems I’ve seen in years!”

Ellie’s eyes went wide. “It is?”

“Absolutely! I can feel it from here. It’s positively bursting with love.”

“Why is that, Professor?” Shane asked while Ellie scooted over to examine the rock with a more discerning eye.

“I believe when Miss Ellie gave it to you, that activated its power. And now that it’s yours, it will only grow more powerful because of your love for her.”

“Is that true?” Ellie asked Shane.

“Yeah. This is a very special rock you gave me, sweet pea.”

She took the pebble from Shane’s fingers, turning it over in her hands a few times. Shane hoped with all his heart that she understood, that she had even an inkling of how much he loved her. 

Suddenly, the full weight of a toddler was thrown against him as Ellie wrapped her arms around Shane’s neck. He quickly wrapped his arms around her to hold her stable, even with his one hand still puppeted. As they hugged, Shane heard Ryan sniff from the doorway where he was filming. 

“I love you, Papa,” Ellie said, her voice muffled by Shane’s shoulder. 

A huge swell of emotion rose from Shane’s gut as he squeezed her tighter. 

“I love you, too, Ellie,” Shane told her, his voice cracking. 

When they broke apart, Shane turned around, nodding his head at Ryan. “C’mon.”

Without a second thought, Ryan pocketed his phone and joined them on the floor, wrapping Shane and Ellie (and The Professor) up in a giant bear hug. As Ellie giggled and her dads cried, Shane made a new promise. No more holding back, the bad or the good. His family deserved it.


End file.
